Government has failed to solve Nevada's housing problems

The market has not worked so far [in fixing Nevada's housing problems]. What are you going to do? (21:18 mark)

After Santorum talked about his proposal to let people write off mortgage losses, Ralston returned to his assertion that the market has failed.

I know you're a free-market guy, and I understand that. But the market did not work for a variety of different reasons. Maybe you agree with that, maybe not. (20:00 mark)

Note the assertion in both of Ralston's statements - "the market did not work."

This is a false assertion that must be vigorously disputed and rejected, because it isn't true. If a defender of the free market answers a question that contains that faulty assumption, he or she is sunk. (It's like answering a "when did you stop beating your wife" question.)This is especially important, because it's actually government's attempts to solve Nevada's housing problems that have failed, not the free market.

The free market didn't create the housing bubble. Government created the housing bubble.

After the housing bubble burst in 2007, has the market failed to fix the housing problems government created or has government prolonged the housing crash by its repeated interferences with the market process?

Let's go back to the evidence.

First, pain was inevitable. After government created the housing bubble, the bubble had to burst and financially hurt many homeowners. That's the fault of the government, not the market.

Verdict? Government has failed. After causing the housing bubble, government is now delaying a housing recovery. The free market hasn't failed in housing; it hasn't been given a chance to work.

Every defender of the free market, especially political candidates, must examine questions relating to housing and make sure the question doesn't contain a faulty assertion.

An accurate question on Nevada's housing woes, like "Why has government failed to solve Nevada's housing problems, and how are you going to stop government from interfering in the market process?" is easy to answer.

As a bonus, the answers that would follow that question would actually improve Nevada's housing market.

Victor Joecks is executive vice president at the Nevada Policy Research Institute and oversees the execution of NPRI's strategic plan and policy initiatives. These efforts have included NPRI successfully informing voters about the destructive impact of tax increase ballot measure, creating TransparentCalifornia.com, which has received over 40 million page views and running campaigns that have decreased union members by thousands, including expanding that effort into a national coalition of over 100 organizations.